One reason why his father Balasaheb Thackeray could form such a powerful organisation was that he was accessible to his common Shiv Sainiks and office-bearers of the party across the state. While Uddhav sailed his party out of the storm, MNS was reduced to just one seat in the assembly and it lost the Nashik Municipal Corporation which it had captured earlier. However, Uddhav hit back at the doubters by winning the 2012 BMC elections, and later on forming a government with the BJP in 2014. Raj Thackeray’s aggressive posture and his initial electoral success made everyone believe the MNS is the new Shiv Sena. After the party’s poor performance in the 2009 Vidhan Sabha elections, questions were raised in the political corridors over the survival of the Shiv Sena. He took over as the executive president of the Shiv Sena in 2004 and soon had to face a rebellion by stalwarts like Narayan Rane and Raj Thackeray. Referring to this philosophy, I have a mixed view of Uddhav’s personality. Swami Vivekananda would say, as did Mahatma Gandhi, every man and his actions have elements of good and bad in them. Uddhav Thackeray, the erstwhile CM of Maharashtra and a faction head of the party, is one of those faces around whom the Maharashtra politics revolves. As a student of political science and as a journalist, I have been a keen observer of the Shiv Sena for the last three decades and have witnessed the highs and lows of the party.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |